CUTTACK: Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) is in a fix to select a suitable place for setting up the second deer park which was proposed six years back.
In 2014, the CMC had identified two acres of land in Ward 56 at Uttamapur on the city outskirts to set up the second deer park. Later, the civic body identified additional 18 acre land adjacent to it after a team of Central Zoo Authority of India on August 17 asked CMC authorities to construct the new park on 20 acre of land and prepare a master plan for the same.
Accordingly, CMC initiated steps for acquisition of land. However, it landed in a spot of bother after it was found that the additional 18 acre was part of Kuakhai river.
With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on construction work on riverbeds, CMC had no option but to cancel the site at Uttamapur. The civic body is now on lookout of a new site for the deer park.
“We had already selected the land at Uttamapur for the new deer park. As the additional 18 acre is part of Kuakhai river, we have again started searching for suitable land in Baranga and Cuttack Sadar tehsil area,” said CMC Deputy Commissioner Radha Krishna Rout.
Land at Sartol and Nuapada under Cuttack Sadar has been inspected and efforts are on to locate more land in Barang tehsil, Rout added.
However, getting land at new sites would not be easy as the civic body has already selected land twice for the purpose but has met with disappointment due to different reasons.
Sources said prior to Uttamapur, the CMC had identified 12 acre of land at Markat Nagar near CDA Sector-8. But the land could not be transferred due to lack of coordination between CMC and Forest Department. Later, the CMC identified a land near National Rice Research Institute(NRRI) at Bidyadharpur for the new deer park. But it was cancelled due to unfavourable environmental surroundings.
The second deer park was necessitated after the Orissa High Court order. The HC move came in the wake of a writ petition alleging that overcrowding in the existing park at Madhusudan Nagar resulted in frequent deaths of deer.
The deer park was set up at Madhusudan Nagar in 1981 over 2.5 acre of land with five deer. At present, the number of deer in the park has increased to 173, thereby resulting in overcrowding.